STALKING SPEARFISHING
The stalking technique lies in moving slowly on the bottom looking for the fish. The discretion is paramount, move slowly, without noises or rough movements. It is specially effective in block areas, rocks, landslides or sea weed spots. It is common to use a mix technique, checking caves or doing short waits.
When using the stalking technique it is usual to see fish escaping. It is not a good idea to try to chase them. We can try to stay static, waiting and hoping they turn and give us a chance to shoot. Even turning and pretending we are going in the opposite direction, trying to make them come back. If it doesn’t work we can go behind them and try to chase them. But we have to take in mind that the faster we go, the faster they will also move, and we will lose them. Although sometimes they take us close to their cave, or lead us to a good fishing spot.
One of the priorities with the stalking technique is not to hurry. Being calmed will let us see fish that I wouldn’t see under other circumstances. Specially when we are fishing in sea weed forests. Very slow movements, without making noises, trying to find the fish without they being suspicious.
It is the same when we are in spots with blocks, rocks or cracks. A silent approach lets us get a position right above the fish. For example on drops where the sea bream are resting.
It is also important to stay close to the bottom. Don’t go in the middle of the water column. Always very close to the bottom. A lot of people define this technique as ‘indian style fishing’. But a more accurate description is the way cats stalk and get close to their preys.
When a fish goes to its cave, we can stay motionless and wait, usually it shows its head to watch us and give us a good shooting opportunity without having to go inside the cave.
The same happens when we are stalking a fish in a spot without rocks or sand, the fish tends to escape to its refuge. A lot of times it is far, out of our vision range. In these situations, stay motionless, or try to hide behind any rock or protrusion, or even pretend that we are leaving to a different place, can make the animal feel curiosity and it can come back or get close to shooting distance.
We can see examples of the stalking technique in some of these videos.
